Off-road experience days?

[Charlie]

Hi,

I thinking about doing an off-road experience day, I have never done any off roading although use to do a lot of mountain biking and was quite good at the technical cross country stuff (if that counts for much). About 7 months left on my restricted license.

Was thinking about getting it as a christmas present off my parents (if it doesn't cost too much). Anyone got any experience with these sort of days? Is it worth the cost? Any recommendations? I live in Lancashire so nothing too far away please.

Thanks a lot,

Charlie.
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[colin1]

They are going to charge you £199 or thereabouts for a day.

Or you could buy a dirt bike for £500, and take it to a forest or disused sand quarry or whatever and have a bit of fun at your own pace

you could also do a bit of research to find out about green lanes in your area (untarmaced tracks that you are legally allowed to go on)

ok buying the bike is more pricey, but chances are you can get your money back whenever you want, and you can use it more than once.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Charlie]

Aye I was thinking about this, now I do have some money saved up, which I was planning to use to buy myself a nice bike when my restriction runs out. Only thing with buying another bike is that I'd need to insure it as well (bear in mind I am 19) with 0 NCB (as there being used on my hornet) and that I only have access to thing in the university holidays.

I need to travel into yorkshire dales really to find any tracks, there are a couple round me, but nothing amazing. Dad looked into all of this when it was into off-roading his Landrover.

Hmm I shall have a word with the parents on Friday and see what they think.
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[colin1]

when your insurance is up for renewal, go for a multibike policy

it doesnt add much to your policy

ebike, and motorcycle direct do them and gave great prices for me

if you commute in town, a dirt bike is pretty good at commuting. not quite as good as a scooter, but arriving on a scooter is less impressive

it can be good to have a scruffy bike to commute on in winter and shit weather, just in case you drop it
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Charlie]

Thanks Colin, it is very tempting to do this, hmm I shall have to have a think. Thank you
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[alliamc]

If you wanted to try out some offroading first without the worry of having to repair the bike yourself you could do the KTM Ady Smith weekend for about £300. I did it in Feb this year and had such a blinding time. Ady teaches you loads of tricks to get you moving in mud quicker and quicker.. you fall off loads, get coated in mud and have a really good laugh! And if the bike breaks you get another one to carry on with until they fix it, plus you get to swap bikes constantly to try out the full range
I'm looking to try out the BMW offroad Level 1 Advanced weekend sometime early next year. I'm doing this to learn slower control skills, KTM is fast paced racing all the time, which is great but knackering, I would defo do it all over again, but I want to learn something different.
If you want to learn to race first do KTM, if you want to learn to ride better for distance travelling overseas then I'm told BMW is better for that. I think a combination of both is a good idea for me as although I won't be racing any time soon, it was great to know that I can ride fast in really slippy conditions, which gave my bike riding confidence a major boom. I did learn some great skills from Ady Smith but now I want to learn to control a bigger, heavier bike in mud. With KTM you get anything from a two stroke 125 to I think the 550 four stroke to try out throughout the weekend.. with BMW it's anything from 650 up.
Also a good point to consider, with KTM your licence doesn't matter but BMW you must have a full licence.

Hope that helps you before you go bidding on ebay for an offroad bike!
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Alli x
https://www.bikepics.com/members/alliamc/

[Dr. DaveJPS]

i'm not sure you can get a multibike policy under 25....
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"intelligent inattention is preferable to unintelligent tinkering"
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[truslack]

[Ste]

yes you can, it all depends on the insurer

off road experience days, you will learn far more by buying an offroad bike and going offroading on byways. offroad experience days are just a taster in a controlled environment being watched by someone who at the end of the day will tell you how amazingly well you have done, thats them securing you recommending them to your mates

if you wanna offroad get an offroader

[colin1]

I was out for 3 hours today on my £500 dirt bike, with my mate, who was on his more sparkly one.

They both got muddy, and we both had a great time splashing through puddles up to our knees, scrambling up muddy slippy slopes by having a bit of a run up and maintaining momentum without spinning the back too much.

Half the fun is going exploring, so although I'd like to do a track at some point, you cant beat going around somewhere a bit more wild at your own pace.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[alliamc]

[silky666]

[alliamc]

[colin1]

another point is, the bike show at the nec every year has free offroad taster where you get 20mins on one of about 4 bikes

its how i first got a taste for offroad

they tell you the basics, so its a bit of a lesson too,

stuff like stand on the pegs over the straight bits, and sit down in the turns

anything much more than that is going to be a bit much when you first try it, you just need to get the feel of it

its a bit like riding around on ball bearings
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Charlie]

I know in Lancashire there aren't that many greenlanes, when my Dad had his land rover he did a good hunt around our area and didn't find that many. I can personally think of 2-3 off the top of my head. One being a decent length the others being pretty short. This doesn't stop riding for 40 mins or more on the road to get into the Yorkshire dales which I am sure have lots more trails. Plus there is the lakes about a similar distance from the yorkshire dales too.

I was thinking along the lines of what alliamc was saying. I wouldn't want to go offroading in my normal stuff because it would all get shit up. I could probably buy some second hand stuff but I dunno about the lid.

Hmm it is an interesting debate though, keep it up.
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[alliamc]

The only downsides to doing BMW's weekend instead of KTM's this time is that BMW ask you to wear your own gear, whereas KTM included theirs (you could turn up in your underwear and they will full cloth you), and of course the £150 price difference:

- KTM £300 for enduro racing weekend
- BMW £450 for Level 1 Advanced + £10 for boots and I'm waiting to find out prices for jacket, trousers and gloves, but I'll use my lid.

KTM seems to be a much messier course and much faster pace... doh, my friend has already booked BMW.. this had better be worth the much higher cost!!
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Alli x
https://www.bikepics.com/members/alliamc/

[tony_d123]

Yamaha do them much cheaper (£175) at venues all around the country, including Bolton.

https://www.yamaha-schools.co.uk/

CAS Honda also used to do them for a similar price but the link is dead so don't know if they have wound it up.

I think that for £175 including all the gear, it is an excellent way to see if you like it before you splash out on a bike and a couple of hundred quids worth of gear. They also give you some good tips for riding off-road which is a very different technique to road riding. Not everyone can get used to both wheels sliding about, especially if they have been riding only on roads for a few years. I have seen some people spend a fortune, then jack it in after frightening themselves on the first off. And you will fall off!

If you try it and like it or just decide to buy a bike anyway and want a "beginners" ride out, come and visit the Lancashire TRF Group.

https://lancashiretrf.free-forums.org/

Be very careful about buying a "field" bike and riding on wasteland or disused quarries, the police are really cracking down on illegal riding, you could end up in court and your bike confiscated. A road legal bike on fully legal trails is the only way to go.

I also live in Lancashire, feel free to pm me if you need any help or advice.
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[alliamc]

[alliamc]

[colin1]

its the yamaha schools people who do the off road experience thing at the nec bike show

they are good, have new bikes, and know what they are doing, a lot of them seem to be ex-dirt bike racers, so they really know their stuff
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[alliamc]

[G]

[Charlie]

Well I have got one booked for the 22nd on March at Red Earth farm near Bolton.

Should be good fun looking forward to it.

Shall let you know how it goes.
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[Charlie]

So I am going down this sunday, is there any advice other than to listen and give it my best shot?

Was also wondering what to wear, they told me to bring a spare set of clothes. So that would incline that I will wear their stuff over my stuff. Any ideas what I should wear under it?

Thanks a lot
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[JBurrows88]